December 22, 2011

This is our last post of the year..................................................................…………………………………………………………………………(that
was me giving you time to collect yourself after reading this). I’m spending
Christmas with my family and I’ll be back next year (next year is in less than
two weeks so don’t panic!).

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or
nothing at all, I wish you all the best in this crazy -but happy- time of the year, and a fantastic New Year! (and that
Santa doesn't keep your gifts)

This was our first year blogging and so far
it’s been an amazing journey! The blog hasn’t changed much since we first started back in March, at least not in terms of content, but we did get a
makeover.

December 21, 2011

This year I read a lot of books, I don’t have
an exact number but I think it was over 200 books. Not all of them were
published in 2011 and not all of them were good, some of them were huge
disappointments (I’m looking at you Susan Elizabeth Phillips), but I think that
overall it was a good year for romance novels.

I admit that most of the Contemporary Romances
of the year were either mediocre or good, but just a few were truly outstanding,
and only two books made my list:

December 20, 2011

Source: we received an
e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

To me the Virgin River books are a bit like comfort
food, you know what you are going to get, they make you feel good and you
always come back for more. This is the 17th book in the series but
Robyn has reinvented it by infusing it with new characters, which
allows new readers to jump right in, even if you haven’t read the other books.

Hidden Summit is the story of Conner Danson.
After an unfortunate event where he ended up the only witness of a murder he
enters the witness protection program and the DA sends him to Virgin River to
lay low while they wait for the trial to start. He has to leave everything
behind, including his sister and twin nephews and get a new job working for
Haggerty Construction. Needless to say he isn’t happy about it.

December 19, 2011

The Rose Garden is one of the best books I have
read this year. Everything about it is beautiful: the setting, the characters,
the romance, and most of all, the writing style. There’s something about Ms.
Kearsley’s voice that feels almost magical, I was transported to the places she
describes and I felt like I was part of the book.

When Eva’s sister, Katrina, dies, she has the
painful task of having to take care of her ashes. After much consideration she decides to
bring them to the small town in Cornwall where they used to spend their summers
when they were kids.

December 15, 2011

Source: we received a copy of the book from the author for review purposes.

Every so often you start a book without any expectations, just to have your feelings about it change, and then change a little more. I know it’s confusing, but that’s what happened to me with this book. When I finished it I wasn’t sure what to think and it took me a couple of days to finally be able to write the review, the only thing sure at the moment – and it’s still true- is that I enjoyed the story a lot, but it does give you stuff to think about it. I don’t mean that it was confusing, but it gave me mixed feeling. Let’s see if I can explain myself better with the review.

December 14, 2011

Note: This review contains spoilers for the previous books in the series.

Sometimes the thrill of reading a series comes from the chance to revisit our favorite characters without jeopardizing their HEA. So when I started this series I was beyond excited about the whole bromance between Dragos and his sentinels, and the fact that Thea Harrison created a whole new world so well written that you can easily imagine living in it.

In this book I was expecting to read more about Dragos and Pia, and Tricks and Tiago, or maybe just have them be part of the plot. What I got was a cameo, yes they are in the background but really, really hidden so you forget about them, and the sad part is that apparently the tight group of sentinels is tight no more. I am saying this now because is basically my only complaint. It is a big issue to me, but Serpent’s Kiss ended up being an enticing story and a good addition to the series regardless of the lack of previous characters, and I enjoyed it more than Storm’s Heart which to me is the weakest book in the series.

December 13, 2011

I’m happy to welcome author Aida Brassington to
our little corner of the blogosphere. She’s here today to talk about the
challenges of writing male characters and how research comes into play when it
comes to accurately portray men. Please help me give her a warm welcome!

Men communicate differently than women. I know this
doesn’t come as a shock to you, but many writers find it difficult to deal
with. It can be even more obvious when, let’s say, a female writer takes on a
main male character written from his point of view.

Between Season’s protagonist is
Patrick Boyle, a nineteen-year-old man who dies in 1970 and falls in love with
the woman who buys his house forty years later. How do you write a guy in his
late teens (and a ghost, at that) and make it believable? Well, for starters,
you eliminate current slang from his vocabulary and do research on popular
language from the late sixties. You
give him feathered hair.

It’s more than just physical appearance and slang,
though. The key to writing believable male characters when you’re a woman is
understanding how men communicate. In a general way, of course – all men don’t
think or act alike any more than all women think or act alike, but there are
some things that have proven true through clinical study.

December 11, 2011

The winner of the Winter Warmers anthology was Aija. Congratulations! I have already emailed you, if you didn't get my email please check your spam folder just in case, or contact me at brie.clementineATgmail.com

Thank you so much to everyone for participating, and I hope to see you all back soon!

December 9, 2011

There’s no better way to end M/M week than with
a giveaway. One lucky commenter will get an e-copy of the Winter Warmers
anthology (you can read my review here). To enter the contest leave a comment
telling us what’s your favorite holiday story, it can be a book or a movie.
Please don’t forget to leave an email on the comment so I can contact the
winner.

Mulled wine.
Butterscotch kisses. Hideous sweaters. Candy at the beach, or a trip to a sex
shop in Amsterdam. And the man of your dreams, wrapped around you…

Winter warmers
come in many shapes and sizes, from the tongue-in-cheek to the hot-as-hell.
Enjoy a quintet of heart-warming tales of men loving men from Clare London,
Chrissy Munder, JL Merrow, Josephine Myles, and Lou Harper that are guaranteed
to leave you with a smile on your face.

December 8, 2011

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book from the authors for review purposes.

I almost didn’t read this book. My TBR pile is huge and I have lots of books to review, but when I realized that I had three m/m reviews ready I decided to have a special week dedicated to the genre and since I had an extra spot I decided to give it to this book. It was the best decision ever because Winter Warmers is filled with great stories that albeit short, pack a lot of punch.

December 7, 2011

I discovered L.B. Gregg’s work last year when I
read Mistletoe at Night, the novella
that was part of Carina Press’ His For the Holidays (Anthology). Ever since then I have enjoyed pretty much all of
her books, so I was very happy to read this new novella.

Simple Gifts begins when Jason’s friend Sunny
drags him to her parents’ Christmas party so he doesn’t have to spend the
holidays alone. What she doesn’t tell him is that her older brother Robb is
back from the army after ten years away from home. Jason and Robb share a past,
they were together for a short while when they were young, but Robb broke
Jason’s heart when he left and they haven’t seen each other ever since then.

December 6, 2011

Source: we received an
e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

I'm not a huge fan of anthologies but I enjoy them when I get great quality and the
opportunity to read new stories by some of my favorite authors. That’s exactly the
case with Men Under the Mistletoe, a
book filled with interesting novellas that have a common theme of second chance
at love.

December 5, 2011

Note: we received a copy of the book from the
author for review purposes.

I know what you’re going to say, another
British m/m author? Well, yes! I’m on a binge and I’m loving every part of it. There’s
something about British writers that’s quite unique, not just m/m authors but
romance in general, and Ms. Myles is one of them. Maybe you have heard of her
before because her novel Barging In
made the rounds in a lot of review blogs and everyone had nice things to say
about it, so when I was presented with the opportunity to read this novella I
jumped right in.

December 2, 2011

The winner
of the signed copy of Some Like It Hot by Louisa Edwards is: Karen C. (whose favorite dessert is Tiramisu and anything chocolate).

The winner
of the regular copy of Some Like It Hot by Louisa Edwards is: Marina M. (whose favorite dessert is Carrot Cake).

Congrats
guys! I’ve already emailed you so if you didn’t get my email check your spam
folder or email me at brie.clementineATgmailDOTcom

Thank you
so much to everyone who took the time to enter the contest and share with us
your favorite desserts, you guys rock and I’m sorry I didn’t have the time to
answer each comment but this has been a busy week. I hope to see you again soon
and good luck next time.

December 1, 2011

By now you probably already know the news concerning the Google Friend Connect widget. If you don’t, the story goes something
like this: Google is trying to make us all leave Facebook and join Google+ because
they are so good at social media and all… Remember Google Wave? Exactly. One of the things they are doing to cleverly promote Google+ is getting rid of GFC for all non-Blogger blogs and
encouraging bloggers to use Google+ instead. Now, Romance Around the Corner is powered
by blogger, so technically we won’t be affected by this, at least not right
now, but I’m sure that sooner rather than later they will banish GFC from
Blogger as well.

So I’m going to give you some alternatives to
follow the blog just in case GFC ceases to exist:

FTC Disclaimer

The books reviewed here were purchased by us. If the book was provided by the author or publisher for review, it will be noted on the post. We do not get any type of monetary compensation from publishers or authors.

Amazon Associates Disclosure

We are members of the Amazon Associates program, which means that we get a small fee if the book is purchased through the purchase link supplied on the post(s). You are in no way obliged to buy the book, or to buy it through our link.

FTC Disclaimer

The books reviewed here were purchased by us. If the book was provided by the author or publisher or publicist for review, or obtained through a third-party service like NetGalley or Edelweiss, it will be noted on the post. We do not get any type of monetary compensation for our reviews.